A Future Less Than Desirable
by Ethel McHorn
Summary: Yuuri lands himself in the Demon Mirror once again, but ends up in a future that has gone very wrong. Forced to witness a side of himself he never knew, he can only stand by watching, powerless.


_First story, people! Be nice. :) _

_Warnings; Yuuram among others._

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**- For the Sake of Ramen -**

He should have expected it, he really should have.

There was no way he'd be allowed to have a nice and uneventful afternoon by himself. He was prepared to bet on half of Shin Makoku that there were a secret document somewhere that said that if was a part of the Maou's duty to be thrown into one hazardous adventure after another.

True, many of the adventures had been rather pleasant or downright awesome, but now that they were finally kinda-sorta-not-really-but-almost at peace with the humans, he felt that he should be able to take a deep breath and relax, a luxury he had been depraved of even since the war took on a full-out bloom.

For Shinou's sake, he had even managed to get the afternoon off from Wolfram and his flaring temper and incessant accusations and insistences that Yuuri actually take the engagement more seriously.

Although he had to admit that the blond had been improving in the matter or their engagement. He weren't clinging to Yuuri quite as much, and he hadn't mentioned the word wedding for at least two weeks. Yuuri would have been worried if he weren't so relieved that the subject had been put on the shelf for the time being.

Thus, he had sneaked away from Günter's lessons, and was lunching with his daughter in the blooming courtyard when it happened. One of the maids had heard either him or Murata speaking of the food they often ate back in Japan, and had decided to give Ramen a try.

The taste turned out to be slightly off, but not in a bad way. It had been a delight to work his way to the bottom of the bowl, all the while grinning at his daughter, now in her preteens, who practically glowed as she devoured the soup. Their eyes met, and with twin smiles, they silently set the rules for the Ramen-eating race.

Yuuri's spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl, and he was about to look up and declare himself the winner, when his blood froze. On the very bottom of the bowl, his gaze landed on the symbol of a lion, much too familiar for his liking.

_Oh, you have got to be kidding me,_ he groaned, catching his daughter's attention. He barely had time to see her brows furrow and her mouth open. Whatever she was about to say never reached his ears, as he suddenly felt himself being sucked into the ramen-bowl.

Well, a Demon Mirror disguised as a ramen-bowl, really.

Now, Yuuri was a very kind, forgiving and understanding king, but he would have a serious conversation whoever saw it fit to store an old demon artifact, not to mention a powerful and potentially dangerous object, on the kitchen cupboards.

Two thoughts flowed through his mind before he lost consciousness; he had most likely just scared his adopted daughter halfway to death.

That, and Wolfram would surely decapitate him for upsetting his little princess.

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"Ugh," Yuuri groaned, starting to come back to life. He became aware of his current position, lying on the ground, cheek pressed down against the stony path that led up to the castle. Slowly, he began to make out his surroundings, the scent of fresh grass, the brightness of the glowing sun, and the distant cry of birds.

It was hard to ignore the small stones cutting into the soft skin of his cheek as well. But there was something strange about the pain, as if it was more a memory of pain rather that actual pain. Shrugging of the strange sensation, Yuuri sat up straight, trying to find out which time he had landed himself in this time.

The courtyard wasn't much different from what he was used to, but now that he thought about it, the trees did look a little bit larger and taller than they had been when he had ventured out into the yard that afternoon. Assuming that no one had dug up all of the trees at some point before his arrival and replaced them with smaller ones, he felt that it was safe to assume that he had now traveled to the future rather than to the past.

To tell the truth, he was a little proud over the observation, ignoring the little voice inside his head that told him that the only reason that he even noticed it in the first place was because he was no longer tall enough to help climb up into the tree by the entrance to the kitchen.

He couldn't help but smile at the formation of flowers in the very center of the courtyard. Unlike last time, both Beautiful Wolfram and The Secret of Gwendal bloomed with force. Still with a soft smile on his face, he reached out to touch a beautiful, yellow flower that grew mere inches from his face.

The smile was wiped off of his face when the hand went right through the blossom. Awed, he stared at it, marveling at the strange feeling. Like the stones, he could feel it, but the material felt like nothing else; not quite gas, liquid or anything solid.

Moving his hand straight through the flower, he could only stare as the blossom remained still, as if he weren't even there, touching it.

"Well," he desperately tried to think of something to say, not really caring that there weren't anyone there to hear him. "That's new."

His newfound discovery was abruptly swept to the side as the sound of a great explosion filled the air, soon followed by trembles.

No matter the time or era, Yuuri was the King of the Mazoku and this was his castle. Alarmed, he turned in the direction of the explosion. Dread flew through him as if replacing his blood, and he was off running toward the center of the eruption before he knew it. Even running felt strange, but he thought none of it.

The explosion came from Lord von Bielefeld's private chambers.

_Wolfram!_

The road to Wolfram's bedroom had never seemed longer than it had in that moment.

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This story will become pretty eventful very soon.

Just a preview, it will be longer in the future, I promise.

Please read and review!


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